YANKS' BIG-MONEY MEN MAKE POOR IMPRESSIONS  —  BALTIMORE — It was a full count and maybe with a pitch here CC Sabathia could still salvage a debut, still make Opening Day as a Yankee more than a humiliating entrance.  —  He had zoomed ahead of Luke Scott, a lefty hitter, 0-2.  The bases were loaded.

Baseball Writers Brace for the End  —  As Newspapers Cut Back, Press Boxes Grow Lonelier; How a Venerable Institution Lost Its Way  —  Baseball's independent press corps, once the most powerful in American sports, is fading.  As newspapers cut budgets and payrolls, the press boxes …

Josh Beckett waits another day  —  Rain no sweat for ace  —  + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email  —  The barometric pressure over New England fell yesterday as rain moved in and washed away Opening Day.  —  As long as the human barometer for the Red Sox [team stats] …

John Lackey extends deadline on contract talks  —  Pitcher's wish to have an extension in place by opening day appears to be fluid now that he's on the disabled list.  —  John Lackey's self-imposed deadline of opening day for a contract extension appears to be fluid, now that an elbow injury …

Giants' Sabean, Bochy on hot seat as season begins  —  For the Giants' 25-man roster, the proving ground of spring training has passed.  For Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy, it's just beginning.  —  The Giants open the season today against the Milwaukee Brewers at AT&T Park …

Answering Baseball's What-Ifs  —  You can learn a lot during a major league baseball game.  Like Ukrainian, if it is a particularly slow nine innings.  —  As for the science of baseball strategy, one game teaches precious little.  A well-timed sacrifice bunt can backfire and lose the game; a foolish steal can appear brilliant.

A-Rod tells Girardi he's right on track  —  Slugger contacts skipper before Monday's opener  —  BALTIMORE — Alex Rodriguez has swapped text messages with Yankees manager Joe Girardi and reports that his rehab is right on schedule.  —  Girardi said on Monday that he and Rodriguez exchanged messages within the past 24 hours.

Saying Goodbye  —  I know this post is supposed to be about opening day, but there was one more thing I wanted to do before turning my attention to the current season.  Peter Jensen's amazing series on using the Gameday data to build a fielding metric prompted me to get that data and play around with it.

Video: Santana's Pre-Game Handshake Parade  —  Prior to yesterday's game, SNY captured video of Johan Santana, before his Opening Day start, walking up and down the dugout greeting his teammates, each of whom he had a unique, personalized handshake for. … To watch Santana's 90-second Handshake Parade, click play below:

Dodgers give up on left-hander Miller  —  Former phenom released after injury-filled time with LA  —  SAN DIEGO — The release of Greg Miller on Monday was another unfortunate chapter in a phenom story gone awry.  —  The move was made as much to clear a 40-man roster spot as to pull the plug on Miller …

Webb not worried by shoulder stiffness  —  D-backs ace lasts only four innings on Opening Day  —  PHOENIX — Diamondbacks starter Brandon Webb said after his club prevailed, 9-8, on Opening Day against the Rockies on Monday at Chase Field that he experienced some stiffness in his right shoulder during …

The Grandstand: Make no mistake, we're expecting big things  —  Note: We're proud to announce that Curtis Granderson will be blogging for Yahoo! Sports on Big League Stew throughout the MLB season.  This is his first post.  —  Spring training is finally over.

There's no need to worry about Doc  —  It was funny to hear the first two callers on JaysTalk last night complaining and worrying about the team's fortunes after they'd just finished cleaning the turf with the Tigers in a 12-5 win.  As Wilner quite rightly pointed out, people should probably tone …

Nice Start for the Fish  —  Over dinner in Fort Myers back in early March, a number of us were kicking around who the surprise teams were.  Minnesota was mine; I liked their 1-through-5 starting pitching depth and thought that any offense anchored by Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau would be good enough.